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Updated: August 2013

Consumer Action Privacy Policy

Consumer Action does not sell, rent, share or trade the names, email addresses or any other information about individuals who correspond with Consumer Action. Saved personal data will never be sold, rented, shared or traded to third parties for commercial or marketing purposes.

Consumer Action does not intentionally or knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Any personally identifiable information collected by Consumer Action on our websites is handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We define personal identifiable information as any information that would allow a party to identify you, such as your name, address, telephone number or email address.

Important Note: There are a number of places on our website where you may click on a link to access other websites that do not operate under this Privacy Policy. These third-party websites may independently solicit and collect information, including personal information, from you. We recommend that you consult the privacy statements of all third-party websites you visit by clicking on the "privacy" link typically located at the bottom of the webpage you are visiting.

To enable consumers to send emails to elected officials and other decision-makers, as well as to send emails to those who sign up for our list, we use the services of SalsaLabs, a Washington, D.C.-based company that provides online organizing and communications tools for non-profit organizations. (Read SalsaLab's privacy policy.)

Consumer Action is a non-profit 501(c)(3) advocacy and education organization headquartered at 221 Main Street, Suite 480, San Francisco, CA, 94105, USA. We were incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 1972 and our corporate name is "San Francisco Consumer Action" dba Consumer Action). If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please write to us at this address or send an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Referral and advice hotline (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

To give you the best possible assistance, we need your full name, city and state of residence, and daytime phone number. If your complaint is of major consumer importance, we like to have the option of referring your name to the media (TV, radio, magazine and newspaper reporters). However, if you object to being contacted by the media, let us know and we will honor your request. On our hotline intake form (consumer-action.org/hotline/complaint_form/) we allow you to join our email list. If you join our list, you will find that very email we send you will contain prominent information on how to use our easy opt-out feature. Once you have opted out, our email system does not allow us to contact you again at the same email address. You may also manage your email preferences by clicking here.

Bulk publications orders

When you order Consumer Action publications, we collect your name, mailing address, contact information (which can include a phone number and/or email address). Consumer Action saves this information about you in order to send you order forms and news about new Consumer Action publications and also to alert you via email about issues that we believe are important to maintaining consumer rights and protections. This information will never be made available to any third party. With each email we send you, you will have the opportunity to remove your email address from future mailings. We will not contact you by email if you ask us not to.

Individual publications orders

When you send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Consumer Action in order to receive single copies of our free consumer educational materials, we do not capture or keep information about you. However, we will insert in your envelope, along with the publication you requested, a letter inviting you to become a member of Consumer Action. If you choose not to join Consumer Action, you will not receive mail from us in future unless you request it.

Consumer Action membership

Consumer Action depends on the financial support of individual members. If you choose to become a member of Consumer Action, your name, mailing address, contact information (which can include a phone number and/or email address) will be collected and added to our membership database so that we can send you our newsletter and other informational mailings as well as membership renewal notices. This information will never be made available to any third party.

Tracking visitors to our site

Our website does not track personally identifiable information about visitors to our website. We capture limited information about visits to our site, but we do this only to analyze what pages are most or least popular and to perform system maintenance. We do not link browsing information to the personal information you submit to us.

Our servers (which are hosted by a third party service provider) may collect information automatically, directly and indirectly, through cookies, sessions, and other general website statistical processes (for example, the use of your "IP address") about your activities while visiting our websites, including the web pages you view and the times you view them and information about the browser you are using.

An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet. In some cases your IP address stays the same from browser session to browser session; but if you use a consumer Internet access provider, your IP address probably varies from session to session.